Men in Suits bring song, science, silliness to Queenscliff

WHEN Melbourne choir Men in Suits roll into Queenscliff Uniting on 12 April, audiences will be invited to sing alongside the choir, in a carefully curated space for connection, joy and mental wellbeing.

Musical director Chris Blain has spent decades getting people singing together, and these days he’s less interested in singing at people than with them.

“These days I spend more time singing songs with people than to people, because I think that’s the magic of music…when people do it together,” he said.

The workshop will entail participants learning to sing one of Blain’s original compositions.

“When people sing together it connects us with our self and with the people around us, and I think it’s a really nice way for society to function when people come together for something joyous,” Blain said.

Men in Suits is a choir with a joint focus in comedy and care. Blain described it is as “a wonderful project of retirement-age kind of guys” who “sing very, very seriously about ridiculous things”.

He said they sing humorously to gently question ideas about power and masculinity.

“We hope to rethink what masculinity looks like,” Blain said. “It is all about the members and all about having a place to come each week to connect and take care of each other and tell the stories we need to tell.”

For Blain, the benefits of group singing go far beyond entertainment.

“One thing I’m sure of is that after an hour of singing together we always feel better,” he said. “There’s something deep and primal and human about coming together and singing. You can’t help being human when you’re singing.”

You also don’t need to be “good” at singing to benefit, he said.

“You don’t get any extra of these feel-good chemicals for being good, it’s just for turning up and doing it,” Blain said.

“Getting tied up in whether something is good or bad, or in tune or not, you’re missing the point.”

That philosophy makes the Queenscliff Uniting workshop especially welcoming for anyone who has ever felt they “can’t sing”.

“If people can talk, they can sing,” Blain said. “The more you do it, the easier it gets and the less of that anxiety response you’re going to have.”

It’s an outlook that fits neatly with Queenscliff Uniting’s mission to be, in organiser Lisa’s words, “a hub for community through events and groups”, from knitting and gardening to book clubs and concerts where people “come together and connect”.

The church, she says, “really wants to be inclusive to all people.

“It’s very much on purpose what we’re doing,” Lisa said.

Chris Blain and volunteer choir members from Men in Suits will run a singing workshop at 10am on 12 April. Men in Suits will then perform at 5pm.

Tickets are available via Trybooking.